Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School

College for Community Health

Department/Program

Counseling

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Dana Heller Levitt

Committee Member

Jeremy Price

Committee Member

Matthew Shurts

Committee Member

Laura Salerno

Abstract

In 2022, over 1.2 million individuals were housed in federal or state prisons in the U.S., in addition to over 514,000 individuals housed in local jails at mid-year (Bureau of Justice, 2024). As released individuals return to their communities, they face the daunting task of re-integration into the community. The purpose of this study was to identify how returning citizens experience reentry to their communities upon release from prison, their perceptions about their reentry experience, and to learn about their unique responses to the reentry process. This study aimed to explore the experience of these individuals to better understand counseling interventions and advocacy that may support their return to the community. The primary question guiding my study was: How have recently released individuals experienced reentry into the community? The secondary questions guiding this study were 1) What are returning citizens’ perceptions about the reentry experience? and 2) How do returning citizens describe the reentry process? This study utilized a qualitative, phenomenologically based approach to address the research questions. Returning citizens who have been released from state prison within the last fourteen months were interviewed once and invited to a second, voluntary interview six weeks later. Thirteen participants engaged in the first interview, eight engaged in the second interview, and two engaged in member checking via transcript review by email. Through an intersectional theoretical framework to provide a perspective of the experience of returning citizens upon release, I found three themes: 1) Meeting Basic Human Needs, 2) Navigating Reintegration After Reentry, and 3) The Push and Pull of Identity: Retention vs. Reinvention. There are implications for counselors, counselor educators, and advocacy actions based on the results of the study.

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